Couldn't Find Volcano; Settled for T-Rex

A garden buddy and I went to look for the house with the brown concrete volcano in the front yard.  Drove all over;  couldn't find it.  

We did find a Miami-Vice style 80's house with palms and big red banana plants and frou-frou window treatments that also had some old west stuff out front.  Weird stylistic mismatch. 

 What's the deal with the rope?  Are they afraid the fence is going to run away?  Or is the fence wearing a rope bikini? 

Then there was the...uh...what style is this?  Hansel and Gretel Ranch?  Suburban Storybook?  

 Slate tiles installed with precise craftsmanship are not cheap.  The stone they used was pricey, too. 

There are irrigation stubs and a pile of drip lines waiting for installation, so they plan to have some sort of landscaping besides dirt and boulders.  What sort of plants will they select for this style of house?  We'll have to return and see.  

Another oddity at another house: a Pandanus species (P. utilis?)  They are uncommon here. They screened out the boat on the driveway quite well:

These plants have prop roots, to enable the plants to grow in loose sand. 

Interesting plants.  The same property had a beautiful young Bismarkia noblis.

 And a really large Agave bovicornuta:

 Decorative tile on the mailbox, with an Foxtail Fern (Asparagus densiflorus var. meyeri)

Across the street from the Pandanus, a nice use of one pot as a pedestal for another pot.  Not odd at all.

 Then there was the T-Rex.  A new remodel attracted our attention. 

Then we spotted the Tyrannosaurus rex!  As T. rex lawn ornaments go, tasteful.  T. didn't scare the lawn to death, though the iron eagle looks disturbed.  The lawn has not been irrigated since May, according to the mow-blow guys, who were cutting a row of Dietes iridioides into cubes.  Yes, you read that right.

 There was another eagle and a pelican on the other side of the walkway.  You could just discern a giraffe in the back yard.  Some nifty architecture there, and a fine arrangement of xeric plants, but the mow-blow guys maybe needed some advice on pruning, and the Dracaena draco (between the two windows on the right), typically growing 15-25' (4.5 - 7.5 m) wide, is planted within a foot (30 cm) of the structure.  It was leaning outwards.

Maybe we should have kept looking for the volcano.
I'll let you know when we find it, though after the T. rex, it might not impress.